Legal, Ethical issues in work environment

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Employee Health & Safety

Here, in this paper the ethical issue or situation that will be discussed in regard to current, previous, or potential future work environment is "Employee Health & Safety", which in present had become a prominent concern of every country's government. In present unstable environment employers, unions, employees and government agencies interest in health and safety related issues is increasing due to the increasing number of work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths. In accordance to the National Safety Council, each workday a fatality takes place every two hours and a deliberating injury occurs every two seconds.

This figure and approximation of fatality and injury demonstrates that number of organization in present & past had confronted various issues and in coming future they will also continue to confront these kinds of ethical issues. All these kinds of approximations and costs that companies are occurring in regard to employee health and safety shows that safety issues have not become a priority of organizations and associations and due to this a number of legal issues in regard to costs and punishments are experienced by organizations.

Thesis Statement:
Does in present various organizations are confronting ethical & legal issues in regard to employees' health and safety?
This statement describes the problems and issues confronted by organizations due to not abiding with the laws established for organizations in regard to employees' health and safety management.

Understanding of Employee Health & Safety Issues

In present competitive environment, for smooth execution of an organization, it has to ensure safety and protection of his employees. Health and safety constitute an essential part of work environment. A work environment should heighten the well being of employees and therefore should be accident free. The terms health, safety and security are intimately corresponding each other. Health is the common state of well being. It not only admits physical well being of an individual, but also his emotional and mental well being.

Safety pertains to the act of defending the physical well being of an employee. In addition to this it also includes the risk of accidents induced because of machinery, fire or diseases. Security concerns to defending facilities and equipments from unauthorized approach and guarding employees at the time when they are on work (Armstrong, 2000). In general the responsibility of employee health and safety falls on the supervisors or HR managers of an organization.

All these laws and plans in regard to employees' health and safety had been made by the government. These rules and regulations made by the government depicts that an HR manager of an organization can assist in aligning safety programs, making employees cognizant about the health and safety plans and policies of the company and carry out formal safety training, etc. In addition to this the supervisors and departmental chiefs are accountable for exerting safe working conditions. Subsequently some peculiar responsibilities have been decided by the government and organizations on the part of managers and supervisors which are as follows:

Responsibilities of Managers:
? Observe health and safety of employees
? Instruct employees to be safety alert
? Look into accidents
? Clearly communicate regarding safety policy to employees

Responsibilities of supervisors/departmental heads:
? Offer technical training concerning to obviation of accidents
? Align health and safety programs
? Train employees on treating facilities and equipments
? Formulation of safety reporting systems
? Assertion of safe working conditions

In present organizations frame various approaches to insure health and safety of their employees but all of the approaches do not concentrate on the contribution of both work design and employee behaviour to safety. Concentration on both of these approaches is essential for making an organizational approach toward safety, effective. A lot of organizational and individual issues come out in the management of employee health and safety, which are as follows and need to be managed ethically otherwise it can direct an organization towards various legal issues:

1. Physical Work Settings: The physical settings of a severally affect the performance of employees as some of the factors include temperature, noise levels, lighting, size of work area and kinds of materials used that make an effect on employees working with these factors. It is believed that each and every organization should take care of physical work settings in which its employees work as otherwise it can lead ...